The present invention relates to a buckle which is formed of a female member and a male member detachably connected to each other, and attached at two ends of, for example, a belt or a strap.
A conventional buckle as described above is formed of a female member in a hollow cylindrical shape, which is provided with an inserting hole and stopping portions, and a male member including elastic pieces, which are disposed at both end portions of a front surface of a collar portion to face each other. The elastic pieces are inserted into the inserting hole of the female member, and distal ends of the elastic pieces are provided with engaging portions for engaging the stopping portions of the female member.
A flat and hollow member or cylinder constituting the female member is opened at a front surface thereof to form the inserting hole thereat, and openings are formed in upper and lower or side walls of the hollow member to form the stopping portions. Also, a rear end of the hollow member is provided with an attaching mechanism for attaching or fixing an end of the belt or the like.
Further, the collar portion of the male member is provided with an attaching mechanism for attaching or fixing an end of the belt or the like.
And, the elastic pieces are disposed to project from the front surface of the collar portion.
Next, operations of attaching and detaching the conventional buckle will be explained.
Firstly, both ends of the belt are attached to the female member and the male member by utilizing the attaching mechanisms. Then, when the engaging portions of the male member are inserted into the hollow member of the female member, i.e., into the inserting hole, the respective engaging portions abut against the inner sides of the upper and lower walls of the hollow member, and the elastic pieces are bent inwardly. Accordingly, the elastic pieces can be inserted into the hollow member.
Then, when the elastic pieces with the engaging portions are inserted into the hollow member until the collar portion abuts against the hollow member, the respective engaging portions face the openings, so that the engaging portions enter into the openings by urging force of the elastic pieces to thereby engage the stopping portions which constitute front rims forming the openings. As a result, the male member and the female member are connected.
Also, in case of separating the female member and the male member, fingers of an operator are placed at the openings to push the engaging portions, so that the elastic pieces are bent. Accordingly, the engagements between the respective engaging portions and the stopping portions are released, and in this condition, the female member and the male member are respectively moved in the directions away from each other, so that the male member and the female member can be separated.
Incidentally, for example, the buckle as described above was disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. S59-82803.
In the male member of the conventional buckle, the elastic pieces project from the front surface of the collar portion.
Therefore, in case the belt is wide, even if an entire length of the buckle formed by connecting the female member and the male member is long, a balance between the width in a vertical direction of the buckle and the entire length thereof in a lateral direction is matched.
However, even if the belt is narrow, since it is required to form a bending margin of the elastic piece, a length of the elastic piece can not be shortened. Thus, the entire length of the buckle formed by connecting the female member and the male member can not be shortened. Therefore, a balance between the width in the vertical direction of the buckle and the entire length thereof in the lateral direction is not matched. Accordingly, there has been a problem that the buckle becomes long, i.e., too long in the lateral or longitudinal direction relative to the vertical direction.
The present invention has been made to solve the above problem, and an object of the invention is to provide a buckle, wherein in case a belt or the like becomes narrow in width, the entire length of the male member is shortened while obtaining a sufficient length for the elastic piece and bending margin thereof, so that the entire length of the buckle formed by connecting the female member and the male member is not too long relative to the width thereof, resulting in maintaining or matching the balance between the entire length of the buckle and the width thereof.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention.